10 CENTENNIAL HISTORY
house, viz., that "there they had Service during the winter season for 14 years by the alternate labors of the clergymen of the town." That first Meeting House is interesting. We should be utterly without knowledge of its origin and dimensions were it not for Mr. Scranton's history. In it he says "The inhabitants in the north part of the town had, some fourteen years before this (1805) erected a meeting house 36 x 30 about five miles from the usual place of worship.["] Just where it stood cannot be determined from Mr. Scranton's account but what he fails to give, the society records make clear. Under date of Dec. 4, 1809, we read the following, "Voted to erect a meeting house on the corner of Samuel Treat's lot 2 1-2 rods northwest of present house." That means that the first house of worship stood 2 1-2 rods S. E. of the present one. But some of you remember it as standing a little north of the house now occupied by Mr. Frederick Otis and perhaps are querying in your minds whether or not my inference is correct. Here Mr. Scranton again comes to our assistance with the statement that "after the new building was completed the old one was sold to E. Scranton for $101 at vendue." Evidently he moved it to the site where you remember it and turned it into a dwelling house for which purpose it was used, until destroyed by fire about the year 1845. But 12 preaching services during the winter did not satisfy the fathers. They wanted divine worship in their midst every Sabbath. So they set about securing and in 1804 presented the following petition to the General Assembly. "To the Honorable the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut to be holden at Hartford in and for said State on the Second Tuesday in May A. D. 1804." The petition of Samuel Treat of the first Ecclesiastical society and Joseph Treat of second Ecclesiastical society in the town of Milford, in the county of New Haven, and others belonging to each of said Societies, their neighbors and Associates,